This book is about bilingual young people who have been selected by their
families to carry out the hard work of interpreting and translating to
mediate communication between themselves and the outside world--between
minority and majority communities. It examines the experiences of these
young interpreters and the skills they develop in order to fulfill this role.

The authors' purpose in this volume is to contribute to extending current
definitions of gifted and talented, by proposing and offering evidence that
the young people who are selected to serve as family interpreters perform
atremarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of
their age, experience, and environment, and should thus clearly be included
in the 1993 U.S. federal definition of giftedness.

They maintain that not only are these capabilities currently overlooked by
existing assessment procedures, but also that there is little understanding
of the ways in which the unique talents of young interpreters might be
nurtured and developed in academic settings.